


Made to Be

by prettyfaroutman



Category: Nothing Much to Do
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-04
Updated: 2014-11-04
Packaged: 2018-02-24 01:52:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2563907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prettyfaroutman/pseuds/prettyfaroutman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pedrazar immediately post-“one foot on sea one on shore one in the boiling hot lava,” based on my headcanon that Pedro and Balthy both know they like each other but Pedro’s too mopey to do anything about it. I hope you like it! :D</p>
            </blockquote>





	Made to Be

“Hey Pedro, can you come help with the…” Pedro saw Bea reaching the top of the stairs as they left Hero’s room, but she trailed off when she glanced over his shoulder.

“Bea, I can help!” Ursula said, grabbing the back of Bea’s shirt and tugging her back down the stairs. “Let’s leave these two alone, okay?” Pedro felt his stomach lurch at the thought that Ursula was clearly involved in this Love Gods garbage too. He heard Balthazar chuckle behind him, but he ignored it, following the girls down the stairs.

Pedro slipped down the hall toward the front door as Ursula ushered Bea back to the living room. He could feel the skin of his shoulders tingling where he felt Balthazar following him, but he didn’t dare turn around, afraid that that might break whatever spell had put him in this situation.

The sound of the party faded into the background as the screen door slammed behind them. Rather than stopping just outside the door, Pedro kept walking around the corner of the house, then leaned against the siding as casually as he could muster before turning to face Balthazar.

“God, that was awkward. Sorry you got stuck in the middle of all that. I didn’t want…I mean…” he trailed off, pulling his hair over his eyes. 

“No worries, mate,” Balthazar answered with a smile.

“No seriously, I’m really sorry. I’ve just been making a shit show of everything lately, and there’s no excuse for me to drag you into it. You of all people deserve better than that.” He sighed, trying to ignore the tightness in his chest that twisted just a little every time he sneaked a glance of Balthy’s face.

Balthazar allowed a heavy pause to pass between them, while Pedro fidgeted, pulling at his hair and his fingers. Finally, Balthazar said softly, “I think people are ready to forgive you, you know, if you’ll let them.”

“Why should they forgive me, though?” Pedro’s voice was suddenly louder, combative. “Why should you forgive me? You all have every right to be mad at me - I was terrible to all of you. I just need to accept the fact that I’m not as good of a person as I thought I was, but how can I do that with everyone telling me nothing’s wrong any more?”

Balthazar let another silence hang, shifting his weight back and forth, waiting. When Pedro glanced back up at him, he saw that same adorable pouty smile that often flashed across Balthy’s face, but there was a sadness in his eyes.

“I think that’s your cue to tell me to snap out of it,” Pedro said. The words came out more harshly than he intended, which prompted more nervous picking at his fingernails.

Balthazar shrugged. “I can’t tell you not to feel how you feel. I mean, you’re not wrong.” The gentle tone in which he spoke hurt almost more than the words themselves. Pedro’s head dropped even further.

“Hey, that looks painful,” Balthazar continued. “Aren’t you hurting your fingers by picking at them like that?”

“Whatever. It doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me. I’d rather not see you hurt yourself.” Very slowly, Balthazar reached out, letting his fingers glance across the top of Pedro’s wrist, before gingerly lifting Pedro’s palm into his own.

Pedro’s heart began to pound as he stared at their hands, hanging innocently together between them. He could feel himself trying to breathe deeper despite the vice grip on his chest.

“I…I thought…” he stammered, “I thought you said…I mean, you just agreed with me that I was awful,” he finished with a harsh laugh.

“Just because you did some bad things doesn’t mean you’re an awful person,” Balthazar said, cocking his head in that quirky way that he had.

“But I am! Or at least, I was.”

“Maybe so. But you don’t have to be.” Balthazar’s smile spread through his whole face, his dimple deepening. He stepped a tiny bit closer, letting their joined hands drop ever so slightly. “You could be more like the man you were made to be.” His voice lilted on the last few words, half singing.

Pedro guffawed, so nervous that he barely had control over his breath. “You really love that song, don’t you?”

“Love, it will not betray you, dismay or enslave you - it will set you free.” Balthazar took another step. His face was so close now, his eyes shining in the moonlight.

Pedro finally shifted his weight away from the wall, leaving barely a sliver of space between them.

“You’re too good for me,” Pedro whispered.

“Hush.” That tight, tiny smile again.

A moment passed where he simply allowed himself to look into Balthy’s smiling eyes, before he lowered his head into a kiss.

Pedro had kissed people before - several girls, and one or two boys - but it had always been just a fun way to pass the time. Never had he felt so tentative, like he was perched on the precipice of something huge and deep. The tightness in his chest wouldn’t release him, though he felt the warmth of Balthazar’s palm in his, the softness of his rosebud lips.

_Love, it will not betray you, dismay or enslave you, it will set you free…_

The words popped back into his mind as he thought about the joy that Balthazar brought into the world with his music, playing his instruments using the same slender hand that was now nestled in Pedro’s. He really wasn’t good enough for Balthy, but maybe it didn’t matter.

And then Balthazar made the smallest sound, somewhere between a sigh and a moan, and the dam in Pedro’s chest broke. He dropped Balthy’s hand to grab for his waist, the other hand flying to run through his soft, spiky hair. Balthazar’s arms enveloped him, but he still didn’t - _couldn’t_ \- feel close enough to him.

***

Pedro felt stumblingly, bewilderingly drunk as the sound of the screen door creaking open around the corner pulled them out of their reverie. He vaguely registered voices, although the sound of Balthazar and himself catching their breath was too distracting to make out actual words.

They gazed at each other, limbs still tangled, noses grazing as they pulled away slightly. Balthazar’s hair, usually perfectly mussed to one side, was all over the place, and Pedro suspected his own was as well. Balthy’s lips and cheeks were so tinged with pink there could be no mistaking why.

“Goodnight, Hero! G’night, Bea!” Meg’s voice called out clearly in the darkness, and they couldn’t ignore the rest of the world any more. Balthazar looked down.

“Hey, um, do you know what time it is?” He pulled away, digging in his pocket for his phone.

“No idea,” Pedro replied, chuckling softly. “Does it matter?”

“It’s just I have that gig in the morning…not that I’m probably gonna get much sleep tonight anyway, but I should give myself a chance at least.” He peeked up from the glow of his phone and smirked.

“Right! Of course. I mean, that’s cool. I’ll be there. Of course.” The drunken feeling hadn’t worn off, so Pedro’s words ran out of his mouth before he could rein them in. “So do you have to go then?” He grabbed absentmindedly at the front of Balthy’s blazer, trying to delay the inevitable.

“Yeah, but…” Balthy ducked his head, smiling shyly, “I just want to make sure you know that whatever you think, I know that you deserve to be happy.” His eyes, always so playful and open, were even more nakedly honest than usual. Pedro was floored.

“And hey, maybe we could have lunch together after my gig tomorrow? Just the two of us?”

Pedro nodded, unable to keep a smile off his face. He waited ’til the last second to let go of the blazer, his hand dropping as Balthazar walked out to the car.


End file.
